The multidisciplinary roots of higher education research: An analysis of citation patterns

Researchers in higher education (HE) are a community of academics with backgrounds and experiences in a variety of scientific disciplines. For this reason, HE research is influenced by other disciplines from which HE researchers take theories, constructs and research methods. This article describes a large-scale analysis of the impact of different scientific fields on HE research. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the influences of psychology, sociology & political science, and economics as the disciplines that have the greatest impact on HE research. To assess this impact, we analyse citation patterns in seven key HE journals. Our empirical analysis confirms that HE research is indeed a multidisciplinary field and experiences a different impact of identified scientific fields for HE articles of different topics. We analyse the dynamics of such an impact and discuss the factors that may cause the growth of multidisciplinarity in HE research.     

Reclaiming literacies: competing textual practices in a digital higher education

This essay examines the implications of the ubiquitous use of the term ‘digital literacies’ in higher education and its increasing alignment with institutional and organisational imperatives. It suggests that the term has been stripped of its provenance and association with disciplinary knowledge production and textual practice. Instead it is called into service rhetorically in order to promote competency-based agendas both in and outside the academy. The piece also points to a tendency to position teachers in deficit with regard to their technological capabilities and pay scant attention to their own disciplinary and scholarly practices in a digital world. It concludes that there is a case for building on established theoretical and conceptual frameworks from literacy studies if we wish to integrate advantages of the digital landscape with thoughtful teaching practice.     

论高等学校的扩招

高等教育由精英化向大众化乃到论过渡,这是高等教育发展的必然趋势,中国的高等教育相对落后,因此扩招是必然之选择,高校扩招对国家、社会、学校、家庭及至个人均有诸多裨益,面对高校扩招所带来的诸多问题与困境,我们要积极地探求解决问题的思路。     

新加坡高等教育大众化评析

:8 0年代中期以前 ,新加坡政府一直推行英才教育政策。但是 ,80年代中后期以来 ,新加坡政府的教育观念和政策发生了很大的变化 ,其中最突出的就是扩大高等学校的招生规模 ,以便让更多的人能接受教育。这一观念和政策的转变使新加坡高等教育步入了一个快速发展的时期。本文对导致这一变化的社会经济背景 ,发展变化过程中的主要改革措施及存在的问题进行了分析和介绍     

国外高等职业教育发展模式探析

在高等职业教育的发展过程中，国外高等职业教育的发展模式主要包括四个层面，即：高等职业教育与普通高等教育发展的关系模式；高等职业教育的院校发展模式；高等职业教育发展的办学模式和高等职业教育发展的管理模式。     

高等职业教育和普通高等教育的差异分析

高等职业教育既具有高等教育的特点,又具有职业教育的特点,无论是在培养目标、培养模式还是在教学管理等方面,与普通高等教育都有明显的差异。     

我国高等教育体制的供给效应分析

我国高等教育体制具有负供给效应，它的产生与高等教育体制中限制教育资源流，限制教育竞争，促使资源配置失调，压抑学校和教职工积极性，保护落后，导致资源浪费诸多因素的存在有关。高等教育体制负供给效应大大降低了高等教育的洪在供给能力，加剧了高等教育的供需制品，降低高等教育体制负供给效应和优化供给必须进行高等教育体制创新。     

析高等教育产业化的认识误区

我国高等教育体制的改革到了关键时期，改革的方向和目标不但决定着今后我国高等教育如何发展，而且将对我国社会发展产生重要影响，高等教育有着其特殊的发展规律，在对市场规律普遍认同的今天，市场规律不适用于教育＊（包括高等教育），即高等教育不能产业化，高等教育的发展必须遵循教育的发展规律，但同时可以借鉴市场经济的运行机制。     

Developmental patterns of privatization in higher education: a comparative study

In most developing countries, as the young population increase in number and consequently, the demands for higher education rise, the governments cannot respond to all demands. Accordingly, they develop private higher education sectors as an alternative solution. In developed countries, some moving factors are influential in creation and the increase of private institutions but there are scarce evidences and comparative results about developing countries. The current comparative study seeks to investigate and analyze the main factors of privatization in higher education of three developing countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Kenya. After a short outline of theoretical foundations, this study provides more in-depth explanations of the principal and common effective factors.     

Perceived legitimacy of decision making and academic governance patterns in higher education: A comparative analysis

This report relates the findings of two parallel studies of campus governance in Pennsylvania institutions. Patterns of decision making were described at six institutions in one study and perceived legitimacy of governance on the part of faculty was assessed on the same campuses. The findings of the studies are related for the purpose of exploring effects of decision issue, institution, and type of institution upon each pattern as well as upon ways in which governance patterns and perceived legitimacy covary. The conclusions suggest modifications in theory and research strategies for future work on the dynamics of campus governance.The authors appreciate helpful comments offered by Professor Marvin Peterson on a draft of this paper.     

Combining planning and the market: an analysis of the Government strategy towards higher education in the Netherlands

This article discusses and analyses the government strategy towards higher education in the Netherlands as it has been designed and implemented since the publication of an influential policy document in 1985. This strategy intends to be a significant break with the traditional government attitude of detailed planning and control. It tries to strengthen the autonomy of the higher education institutions and to enlarge their adaptability to the needs of society. In this article the government strategy is characterized as a combination of two fundamental mechanisms of coordination: planning and the market. It is argued that the strategy shows that the Dutch government tries to address both market and non-market failures. However, by doing so, it has created a mixed bag of policies and instruments, demonstrating that government has not yet abandoned its confidence in its own capacity to successfully steer the higher education system.     

An analysis of reform in administrative system of Chinese higher education

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the administrative system of higher education then was characterized as “centralized”, “Tiao and Kuai” were segmented (some higher education institutions were directly administered by provincial governments, and some were affiliated to the relative administrative departments of the state) and higher education institutions (HEIs) were government-run. The reform in the administrative system of higher education launched in the 1980s broke down the segmentation of “Tiao and Kuai”, and changed it into a new administrative system emphasizing the role of the provincial governments (“Kuai-oriented mode”). Thus, HEIs gained more autonomy and tremendous changes have taken place in the relation between HEIs and the government. However, weakening the government’s administrative control over HEIs and readjusting government-HEIs relations are still the main concerns in reforming the administrative system of Chinese higher education. __________ Translated from Journal of Nanjing Normal University (Social Science), 2005 (4)     

Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

The current study utilizes the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211 Ajzen 1991) to examine an instructor confirmation-interaction model in the instructional communication context to discover a means by which instructors might cultivate positive student attitudes and increase beliefs that interactions with instructors would be beneficial in the future. Specifically, the model examines how teacher confirmation (Ellis 2000) influences students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. Surveys were distributed to 343 college students (41.7% male and 58.1% female) in a basic communication course. Results were primarily consistent with the proposed model; teacher confirmation was significantly related to attitudes toward communicating with an instructor, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were also positively related to students’ behavioral intention to communicate with the instructor. However, results reveal attitudes toward communicating do not predict students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. It is recommended that future models examine a more contemporary, hi-tech representation of attitude toward student-instructor interactions as it may produce a significant association with students’ behavioral intent to communicate with them. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications to examine student classroom communication via the confirmation-interaction model and the theory of planned behavior.     

An analysis of higher education staff attitudes in a dynamic environment

Abstract

Since 1980 the staff student ratio in the UK has halved. This has been contributed to, amongst other factors, by the massification policy of the UK government. The requirement to publish, the view of students as consumers, an increase in managerialism, and reduction in real pay levels as well as the threat of compulsory redundancies have also been changes which have affected the attitudes of staff. As a result of these factors, the experience of both academics and students has deteriorated, and this is likely to continue. This paper uses survey data from three higher education institutions, which indicates a reduction in the satisfaction of staff over a number of years. Interviews with key informants and a literature review also support the view that levels of stress are increasing amongst academic staff within UK Higher Education institutions.     

The internal efficiency in higher education: An analysis based on economies of scope

Among the studies of the internal efficiency in higher education, most have focused on the scale of university (the economies of scale), but little on internal operating efficiency in higher education, especially on the combined efficiency of outputs (the economies of scope). There are few theoretical discussions or experimental research on whether teaching resources are complementary with research resources, or whether resources in undergraduate cultivation are shared with those in postgraduate training. In the background of the resource scarcity, it is significant to study the economies of scope in higher education to realize intensive development of higher education. Based on the multiproduct cost function and the data of universities attached to the Ministry of Education, this paper attempts to deal with the complementarities of resources used in undergraduate cultivation, postgraduate training and research to find that universities produce these outputs without sufficient resource sharing, the diseconomies of scope in postgraduate training is highest. As far as the quality of teaching and research are concerned, diseconomies of scope of the outputs are great. The main reasons are as follows: poor distribution of facilities, teachers and books, overlapping internal management systems, and the current postgraduate cultivation model. Therefore, relative departments should take internal resource sharing in higher education into account when making the administration policy of higher education.     

中国高校内部效率研究——基于范围经济的研究

Among the studies of the internal efficiency in higher education, most have focused on the scale of university (the economies of scale), but little on internal operating efficiency in higher education, especially on the combined efficiency of outputs (the economies of scope). There are few theoretical discussions or experimental research on whether teaching resources are complementary with research resources, or whether resources in undergraduate cultivation are shared with those in postgraduate training. In the background of the resource scarcity, it is significant to study the economies of scope in higher education to realize intensive development of higher education. Based on the multiproduct cost function and the data of universities attached to the Ministry of Education, this paper attempts to deal with the complementarities of resources used in undergraduate cultivation, postgraduate training and research to find that universities produce these outputs without sufficient resource sharing, the diseconomies of scope in postgraduate training is highest. As far as the quality of teaching and research are concerned, diseconomies of scope of the outputs are great. The main reasons are as follows: poor distribution of facilities, teachers and books, overlapping internal management systems, and the current postgraduate cultivation model. Therefore, relative departments should take internal resource sharing in higher education into account when making the administration policy of higher education. __________ Translated from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会科学 版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences)), 2007, (2): 81–91     

试析我国高等教育的包容之道

在高等教育大众化阶段,接受高等教育是社会包容度的一个核心指标.高等教育要从促进社会包客的角度去把握人才培养和学术服务的社会责任,促进教育、文化、经济、社会、环境的协调发展与可持续发展.阐述社会包客思想及其理论基础,介绍美国、澳大利亚政府与高等教育机构共同促进社会包容性发展的主要举措,剖析我国高等教育实现"包容性增长"所面临的挑战,论述我国高等教育的包容之道并提出策略建议.     

民办高等教育在高等教育体系中的定位

传统的高等教育类型划分影响了民办大学的准确定位 ,对民办高等教育发展产生了消极影响。本文提出民办高等教育应该属于综合类高等教育 ,民办大学有条件办成以全日制本专科教育为主的综合大学 ,而不是高等职业技术学校